The inaugural meeting of a special House commission to study the feasibility of placing solar panels on interstate highways will take place Wednesday, Sept. 13, at 4 p.m. in Room 101 on the first floor of the State House.

Speaker of the House K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Dist. 23, Warwick) has appointed Rep. Robert D. Phillips (D-Dist. 51), whose resolution creating the commission was adopted by the House of Representatives, to serve on the commission along with Rep. David Morales (D-Dist. 7, Providence) and Rep. Matthew S. Dawson (D- Dist. 65, East Providence).

Rounding out the commission will be Robert Rocchio of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, James Wilusz of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Todd Bianco of the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission, and Shauna Beland of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources.

The commission will be tasked with determining the feasibility of placing solar panels on Interstate highways, and will report back on April 11, 2024.

“There’s an awful lot of real estate running along our highways that could be used for the creation of renewable energy,” said Representative Phillips. “This commission will assess the potential for installing those panels, and mapping this potential will help the General Assembly to make well-informed and confident decisions about renewable energy. This is especially important as new technology brings increased infrastructure demands of our roadways.”

The meeting will be televised live and can be seen by Cox subscribers on channels 15 and 61 , on channel 15 by i3Broadband viewers, and channel 34 for Verizon subscribers. Livestreaming will be available at rilegislature.gov